Wednesday, April 2, 2014

Zelda Starring Zelda 2: Dev Blog 3

AND THE TIME OF DESTINY FOR PRINCESS ZELDA IS DRAWING NEAR

If y'all checked my blog recently, you probably saw that I've extended my deadline for myself till this weekend. I really need to get it done this weekend because there's a group of Indie Game Developers I'm trying to impress and they have their monthly meeting this weekend. But never fear. I'm still chugging along. You will get your Zelda.

Here's where I'm at with the sprites. I've got 30 left. I have no earthly idea where they go. There is a very real possibility that some are unused in the game, the others are probably one-offs that only used in one or two scenes. I've got enough of a "feel" for Zelda that I'm going to just paint over them without checking the animation, but it makes me feel like I'm flying blind.

Ah well. Here's the complete sprite list for Zelda as it is right now, without the Link/Lords sprites that I've cooked up.

Hardcore fans will notice that the bunny is now a naked bunny instead of a bunny in a tunic.
This is because Zelda wears a cape and the bunny tail looks weird in the cape.

Yes, "Lords". I promised you some final story decisions. I'm really not changing much. I want to preserve the original feel of the game, so most things are not changing. Zelda is still a princess, Gannon must be defeated, and Hyrule is still kinda worthless at defending itself, despite the wide-spread availability of weapons, magic, and bombs.
The decedents of the Seven Sages are still being captured. You still gotta go fetch them. The biggest change is that all of the decedents are now "Lords" instead of "Maidens". I'd love to make them a mix of Lords and Maidens, but the problem is that Nintendo only made one "Maiden" sprite for the SNES version of Link to the Past. Each "Maiden" is just the same sprite in different colors. I can't change this with the tools I have.

This sprite, actually. In the crystal. "Walking" Zelda originally has her own sprite set,
but her "lying down" sprite is shared with the other Maidens. If you look closely,
the Maiden's right arm is on her dress and the left arm is hidden. This is because
this sprite is also the Maiden's "walking" sprite. So the lords/maidens must look uniform.
Nintendo's sprite decisions continue to boggle me. O_o

But it makes sense. The Seven Sages are all dudes (again, only one sprite) so it makes sense to have the Sage's power follow the male line. It's one of those Fantasy Genere trope things and I feel comfortable conforming to it.

The other thing that's sorta changing is that Zelda is Link's sister. This isn't a change, really. It's sorta hinted at in the beginning. The text in the screen shot is unedited.

Zelda is my what? WHAT, Uncle? SPEAK TO ME!!! NOOOOOO!!

And then he dies. Like you do.

Zelda-is-Link's-Sister is a fan theory that makes the rounds sometimes. It all stems from Link's Uncle's unfinished death bed confession (seen above). The two most likely options are "destiny" or "sister" and I've always sided on "sister". Remember, the guy that's talking is Link's uncle. Not his dad. Link's parentage is unclear.

Also the original pre-game cut scene says "the time of destiny for Princess Zelda is drawing near", so we can probably eliminate "destiny" from this really, really, really important death bed confession. Sister makes more sense.

The conversation above will be the only time I'll put "brother" into the script. This is the only time that the game hints at a deeper relationship
between Link and Zelda (aside from their telepathic connection) so I won't make a big deal about it.

"Save your brother... Link is the ... ..."

And that'll be it. This is just to quickly explain why Zelda is still Princess Zelda, and not Farm-Hand-Gone-Wild Zelda.

So to sum up: Lord Link is your brother. That's all. The other changes will just be cosmetic pronoun changes. I'll rely on you guys to alert me to any pronouns that I miss and I will probably have to release at least one update.

I also realize that not everyone will be 100% on-board with my storyline decisions, so I'll also provide links to the various editing tools to use to change the story in a way that suits you best.